Quebec Liberals say next leader must be more than just a defender of federalism

Quebec Liberals have never been big on soul-searching, and there has not really been much call for it over the past 40 years.

Since the arrival of the Parti Québécois on the political scene, the Liberals’ overriding mission under leaders from Robert Bourassa to Jean Charest was simple: Beat back the separatist threat.

Mr. Charest hammered away at the familiar theme throughout last summer’s provincial election campaign, singing federalism’s praises and warning that a PQ victory would lead to a divisive referendum. But he lost, defeated even in his riding of Sherbrooke. With a minority PQ government in power in Quebec City, the Liberals are now in the middle of their first contested leadership race since 1983.

It is a sign of how Quebec’s political sands have shifted since Mr. Charest was enlisted as leader in 1998 that the Liberal challenge is no longer simply about finding the best person to stand up for federalism. In interviews this week, the three candidates seeking to replace Mr. Charest — Philippe Couillard, Raymond Bachand and Pierre Moreau — all spoke of the need for the party to redefine what it stands for.

“The best response to this environment right now is to renew the party, to have a brand new approach towards ideas and make it a movement of ideas again rather than a political machine,” said Mr. Couillard, who was Liberal health minister until he left for the private sector in 2008.

Mr. Bachand, former finance minister and current finance critic, noted the steady erosion of the party’s francophone support and said it is time to “rebuild ideas.”

Mr. Moreau, the former transport minister and current intergovernmental affairs critic, said the notoriously disciplined party has to open up and become “a place for debate.”

The discussion will get rolling Sunday in Montreal when the candidates hold the first of five scheduled debates leading up to the March 17 convention. Obviously, none of the contenders suggests abandoning the Liberals’ attachment to the federation, but waving the flag is producing dwindling results. In the Sept. 4 election, the Liberals finished a close second to the PQ, but their 31.2% share of the popular vote was a historic low.

Clouding the exercise in renewal is the ongoing Charbonneau commission into corruption, and the stain it has left on the Liberal name. All three candidates were important players in the Charest government. Although none has been accused of any ethical breaches, they will combat a perception that their party has become the face of cronyism in Quebec.

The three candidates are hoping the current distrust of the Liberals will be a blip.

“These are tough times, that’s for sure, but I’m taking a higher altitude view of this,” Mr. Couillard said. “The Liberal Party of Quebec is a very important institution in the province. It has presided over many of the substantial changes that out society has known over the last decades, under Jean Lesage and previous leaders, and subsequent leaders too.”

The evidence unspooling before the Charbonneau commission is damaging not just for the Liberals, he said, but “for the entire political class.”

Mr. Bachand, first elected in 2005, attributed the party’s defeat last September to a desire for change and concerns about integrity. He said the Charest government hurt itself by delaying the public inquiry, but he said it had to give new anti-corruption police squads a chance to do their work.

Mr. Moreau said he is not worried the Charbonneau commission, which resumes hearings Jan. 21, will inflict the kind of long-lasting damage on the provincial Liberals that the Gomery commission into the federal sponsorship program did on the federal party.

“We have to distinguish between the actions of individuals and of the Quebec Liberal Party,” he said. “It is an important distinction. The Liberal party is a great institution that has shaped modern Quebec.” The party’s conduct has been beyond reproach, he added.

Nobody knows what the coming months of testimony before the Charbonneau commission will bring. So far the most damaging revelations have concerned municipal, not provincial, politics, and it is possible anger at the Liberals will subside. It doesn’t hurt that Pauline Marois’ PQ government got off to a rocky start and quickly gained a reputation for flip-flopping.

‘We have to re-engage in Canada. I have the feeling that other Canadians feel that Quebecers are on the sidelines’

Mr. Couillard, 55, who is considered the front-runner, spelled out his vision for the party in a December article in Le Devoir, calling for a “return to the sources” of Liberal ideals. The party, he said, has always stood for cultural diversity and friendship with progressives in the United States and Canada.

In the interview, he said that while the federalist-sovereigntist debate has “shifted a little bit to the backstage,” it remains crucial to defining his party.

He is in favour of an eventual constitutional deal to include Quebec — he called it “closing the loop” opened with the 1982 repatriation — but said first Quebec has work to do.

“We need to have a conversation in Quebec about what constitutes our identity and our distinctiveness,” he said. “And then we have to re-engage in Canada. I have the feeling that other Canadians feel that Quebecers are on the sidelines.”

Asked what, aside from the constitutional question, most distinguishes the Liberals from the PQ, he said the Liberals are more pro-business.

The Liberals are “a very tolerant and inclusive movement…. If you listen to the PQ discourse, they talk about language, they talk about culture, they talk about identity, it always comes from the point of view of the francophone majority.”

At 65, Mr. Bachand is the oldest of the candidates, and he said friends asked him why he would want to get involved in a leadership race. As a former finance minister, his strong suit is the economy, and he said it is a concern for Quebec’s future that motivates him. “As you see in Europe today, if the economy doesn’t work, if your public finances are not in order, then everything is an illusion,” he said. In just a few months in power, the PQ government has already driven away business, he said, and he fears the situation will worsen.

Mr. Moreau, 55, is counting on an appeal to young Liberals to propel his darkhorse candidacy. Under party rules, one-third of delegates to the convention will come from the youth wing, and Mr. Moreau is energetically courting. He proposes giving young Quebecers easier access to civil service jobs and setting aside winnable ridings for young Liberal candidates. “We have to bring young people back to the party,” he said.

John Parisella, a long-time Liberal who was chief of staff to Mr. Bourassa, worries that his party rushed into a leadership race. After the PQ tabled an early budget in November, the likelihood of an election before 2014 became slim. The party would have benefited from a closer examination of what he called the “severe defeat” of Sept. 4. He called the three leadership candidates talented but said others might have come forward had more time been taken. “I’m not impressed when I’m told, we nearly won, we surprised everyone, we nearly pulled it off,” he said. “I say a loss is a loss is a loss. This was a loss, and I think the soul-searching needed to be done.” He said party should be asking a straightforward question, the answer to which was once taken for granted: “What is it to be a Liberal today?”

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